At 11:35 AM 1/22/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>David VanHorn wrote:
> >> Or a bunch of cheap 0603 or 0402 LEDs arranged in a X-Y matrix.  The
> >> forward
> >> voltage will guarantee just about all the energy will go into the
> >> LED. Since they are diodes, the X-Y grid drive arrangement should
> >> work.  This would make for a cool flash whenever you did blow a fuse.
> >
> > Easy to make them fail shorted, harder to make them fail open.
>
>If you blast enough current thru them, like discharging a large cap, they
>pretty much have to fail open I would think.  I admit I haven't tried this.
>Hmm, I do have a roll of 0603 LEDs around here somewhere...

The bonding wire will probably act as the fuse, but being embedded in epoxy
it will take more energy to fuse than if the wire was hanging in mid-air.

Here's a chart of fusing currents for various types of wire:

http://www.speff.com/fusing.htm

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com
->> Inexpensive test equipment & parts http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZspeff


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